


Left Behind

by pherryt



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, INFINITY WARS SPOILERS, Lots of Angst, all MCD are canon from movie, infinity wars coda, mentions/memories of peter parker quill and more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-05-07
Packaged: 2019-05-03 14:58:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14571483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pherryt/pseuds/pherryt
Summary: In the book of Revelations, it was called Judgement day.It wasn't the same thing, not at all, but the affectswere.Half the population gone, in the blink of an eye, all over the universe.They'd been left behind.There wasn't anything worse than that...





	Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

> I have NEVER written Marvel or any of these characters before.
> 
> But I woke up with this in my head and I had to write it. Yes, i saw the movie yesterday. No, i don't actually know how it goes from here (I never read Infinity Wars. the most I've read for Marvel was Power Pack and random other things here and there. Marvel - as comics - always intimidated me because i had no idea where to start) 
> 
> Shipping: there's no active shipping in this story, but there's nothing that would be against any ships either (as far as I can see).
> 
> Spoilery wise: there's actually not much details from the movie in here except (some of) who dies.
> 
> I was actually crying while writing this. I gotta be honest with you, the part that hit me hardest in the movie was Peter Parker...in Tony's arms. seriously.

Steve Rogers looked out over the battle ground in horror.

They’d been so close. He was sure of it. He’d been dead… and now he wasn’t.

He could remember Bruce being encased in stone, folded into the wall like pizza dough. He remembered the deaths of others that now stood alive beside him.

But they’d failed. Visions’ stone had been taken. That Thanos had messed with reality or time or both to roll things back - it meant that they’d actually succeeded.

But then they’d failed.

Steve had watched many of his friends, his fellow avengers, his allies, disappear before his eyes.

Bucky.

He’d finally gotten Bucky back only to lose him again.

He was forever losing his loved ones. There were so few of them left.

They’d been so damn close.

Was there any way for them to fix this?

 

* * *

 

Tony Stark knelt on a godforsaken planet in the middle of he had no idea where and he didn’t fucking care.

He was alone.

He was _always_ alone in the end.

Peters words begging Tony not to leave him, to not let him die, rang through his head again and again.

They’d been _so fucking close_. If Quill had managed to keep rein on his grief for five more minutes, none of this would have happened. They’d had one chance. One shot.

And they’d screwed the pooch.

Thanos said it was painless. That what he was doing was a mercy.

Tony sure didn’t feel that way. His heart was empty and his mind blank. He was filled with grief and pain.

All across the universe, Tony _knew_ , everyone was grieving. He knew he wasn’t alone in this.

How was that painless? Mothers, fathers, children. People who never deserved this…

 _Peter_ hadn’t deserved this.

What was he going to tell Peters aunt? _If_ she was even still alive.

Tony stared unseeing across the landscape.

It didn’t matter that Peter had survived the fight. It didn’t matter that regardless of whether he’d been here or safe back on earth like Tony had wanted, Peter might still have been blinked out of existence. It didn’t matter, because the weight of it still fell on Tony. Peters words twisted like a knife in his gut.

Reminded him that all the good things he ever had, that all the loved ones he found, were always taken away from him, one way or another.

He staggered to his feet.

Earth. He had to get back to Earth. He had to find out who was left.

He had to make amends with burned bridges before it was too late.

Probably already was.

Dragging himself through the wreckage of a long-forgotten planet, Tony looked for Quills ship. The donut Tony, Peter and Steven had used was a wreck, destroyed by their own incompetence, but Quill and his merry band of rejects had gotten here somehow.

The ship wasn’t far, wasn’t hard to discern, but it felt like it took eons to reach it, each step a struggle. The ship was an odd mix of sleek and banged up that matched nothing else on the planet and Tony let himself inside.

He expected security systems but was met instead with noise that blared as he stumbled about looking for the control room. An alarm, most likely, one which got louder as he followed it to it’s source. As he’d thought, it originated in the oddly designed cockpit and he stumbled forward again, catching himself on a console.

That’s when he finally realized what the alarm was for, why every step had been a fight.

The planet beneath him was breaking apart.

It was time to go.

If Quill could fly this thing, there was no doubt that Tony could too. Once in the air, once he had Earth programmed in, he could look for the med bay, or whatever passed for medical here on this stupid ship.

Another day, Tony might have admired the tech. Might have been impressed with the jury-rigging he caught here and there.

But he was too goddamned tired to care anymore. Only one thing mattered.

He had to go home.

He had to see who was left.

 

* * *

 

“Shuri, you have to. Wakanda _needs_ a leader.” Okeye pressed. Gathered in Shuri’s lab were what was left of the guard, the council and the Avengers. Even her mother was gone.

“No, that is not who I am,” Shuri protested. “ _This_ is who I am. Find Nakia, she should rule in my brothers…” Shuri couldn’t say it, grief clouding her eyes, choking her voice. She turned away, focusing on the injuries of those who had refused attention on the battlefield, making sure others got aid first.

It was a worthy instinct, but one that some had paid for with their lives. The one called Bruce watched her intently as she worked on his injuries. He’d been asking her questions about how the tech worked before her brothers’ general had barged in to find Shuri.

Now he was quiet, his eyes flicking from Shuri to Okeye and then back down to Shuri’s hands, trying not to intrude.

Okeye swallowed but stood up straight. So many had been lost. First in battle, then in the aftermath. Her husband, gone. Shuri’s mother, gone. So many others… “We don’t even know if she’s alive.”

“Then find out!” Shuri shouted desperately. “I have work to do.”

“Something is approaching the atmosphere,” Shuri’s computer spoke calmly and everyone turned to face it. She handed Bruce the control absently and he deftly caught it, continuing her work. He’d asked enough questions, was more than smart enough to operate such a simple tool despite his newness to it while her attention was focused elsewhere. Her fingers flew over the console and an image appeared.

“That’s Quills ship!” Rocket shouted. He laughed, the sound of it nearly hysterical. “They’re alive! I knew it! If anyone could survive something like this, it’d be _that_ moron.”

“You know this ship?” Okeye asked distrustfully, rounding on the talking raccoon.

“You could say that.” Rocket preened.

“Actually, he’s the captain,” Thor interrupted. “They pulled me from the wreckage of the Asgardian refugee ship after Thanos attacked. I owe them my life and many thanks.”

“Well, not exactly. Quills the _real_ captain. But he’s an idiot. A lucky idiot, but still an idiot,” Rocket said, fondness in his tone. “I keep telling him it should be _me_ who’s the captain, since _I’m_ the genius on that boat, but nobody _ever_ listens to me.”

“I listened to you, rabbit,” Thor answered. “Your assistance was most vital.”

“Yeah, well, your friend isn’t answering hails and the ship isn’t slowing down. It’s going to crash,” Shuri interrupted.

Rocket’s face transformed to one of horror and Shuri could feel the pain emanating from the creature. He turned and ran, Thor and Steve both on his heels.

Shuri tracked the ship, though once outside the city limits her guidance wasn’t much needed. Everyone watched on the screen with baited breath as it crashed into the already torn earth. Rocket was first aboard the ship, not even waiting for the smoke to clear, shouting out for his friends.

“Quill! Gamora! Draxx! Mantis! Geez, I’m really glad you guys made it! Haha… I knew you guys wouldn’t leave me alone! You wouldn’t _believe_ the kind of day I had.” Rocket tore through the ship frantically, Thor and Steve following more carefully behind. “Groot… Groot’s gone…” Rocket choked. “Again… no coming back this time. No more tripping over his stupid vines or, or… yelling at him for his _stupid_ video game.”

The longer he went with no answer, the quieter those still in the lab became. Shuri paused her work to put a hand over her mouth. Tears pricked at her eyes. It was all too clear to her  - and everyone else watching - that Rockets friends were gone too.

 

* * *

 

Steve followed the talking raccoon around the small ship, eyeing it critically. He wasn’t an expert, but he was pretty sure most of the damage had occurred from the crash itself. He had a bad feeling about what, exactly, had caused the crash.

So many people had disappeared because of Thanos, which had caused even more destruction and death as driverless vehicles of all kinds careened out of control. He exchanged concerned looks with Thor.

Rockets friends were probably gone.

It was therefore to everyone’s surprise when they _did_ find someone on the ship.

Much less _who_ they found.

“Tony?” Steve breathed out incredulously.

He and Thor rushed forward, flipping an unconscious Tony onto his back. A quick check had both of them sighing in relief. Tony was still alive. Gravely injured, yes, but alive.

No matter their differences, Steve had never wanted Tony dead.

“Who the hell is he? Where are my friends?” Rocket bounded over, grabbing fistfuls of Tony’s shirt and shaking him. “Wake up and tell me where my friends are!” Rocket shouted.

Thor reached for Rocket, pulling him away from Tony’s inert form. “Easy, rabbit, he’s a friend.”

Rocket glared at all of them, shaking off Thor’s hands, his ears, tail and whiskers all drooping. “No. No, he can’t be the only one left alive on this ship… They didn’t leave me alone!” He turned and ran, Thor looking after him sadly.

Carefully, Steve lifted Tony up in his arms. He glanced at Rocket who was still desperately combing the ship, still shouting, though it was clear it was empty of anyone else. Thor met his gaze.

“I will stay with him,” he told Steve. “You get Tony back to Shuri.”

“Thank you,” Steve replied.

Exhausted and worn out, Steve none the less carried Tony out of the ship. He found transport waiting for them outside and suspected he had Shuri to thank for that. In no time at all, Tony was laying on the bed that Vision had been the most recent occupant of.

Bruce stood beside Tony as Shuri worked.  “I don’t understand. He had nanites. He _showed_ them to me. They should be able to repair anything. Why is he…?”

“The nanites are inert. Most of them are dead. Whatever he’s been through, they took too much damage to repair his suit – or him.” Shuri said quietly as she worked. “I might be able to bring them back online, but it’s a longshot.”

“Will he live?” Steve asked desperately. He couldn’t lose anyone else. Even someone so pigheadedly stubborn as Tony.

She paused and gave them a grave look. “Perhaps. But I need to work in peace.”

 

* * *

 

Tony woke slowly.

At first, it was almost pleasant. Everything was such a contrast to where he’d been, that he thought maybe, just maybe, it had all been a dream. A Nightmare. He had so many of those these days, that he could believe it.

He blinked.

The room was bright, music played, and there were no assaults on his senses.

But then he tried to move and every muscle screamed. He gasped and a hand pushed him down gently. Blinking again, he looked up, trying to focus –

“Steve?”

“Yeah, Tony. You with us? You almost died,” Steve said softly.

“Th-Thanos? Wasn’t a… wasn’t a dream, was it?” Tony asked, desperately hoping he was wrong. That he’d been injured some other way that he couldn’t recall.

Steve looked away and that was all the answer Tony needed. Grief crippled him. If he hadn’t been laying down already, he’d have collapsed in on himself. But he shed no tears. Refused to.

“Tony – “

“Go away, Cap,” Tony rasped out. He turned his head away from Steve. The last person he wanted to witness him breaking down was Steve.

“Tony, what happened out there?” Steve’s words were soft, imploring and Tony closed his eyes against the tears the pricked him.

He took a shaky breath, but kept his eyes shut. “Everything. And nothing. We lost everything. We lost… to Thanos. Almost had him, we almost… we were so damn close!” Tony gasped, his breathing turning ragged as he relived each moment.

As he relived, once more, Peter Parkers boyish face looking up at him fearfully, desperately, trusting Tony to fix it.

That’s what broke him.

That’s what had Tony curled into Steve’s arms while bawling like a baby, uncaring of who saw him now.

Through it all, Steve just held him.

There was no real comfort in it. Steve couldn’t take back what Thanos had did, or Tony’s own actions. Not those today, or those that had caused Tony to push Steve away two years ago.

He’d regretted those actions almost immediately but had been too prideful to fix his mistakes.

Now those mistakes didn’t matter anymore.

Nothing mattered anymore.

“We’ll fix this, Tony,” Steve murmured. “I swear, we’ll find a way to fix this.”


End file.
